Anterior "fraying" of the labrum and biceps tenosynovitis for me. With a bit of AC joint impingement for good measure. I had a steroid injection that helped somewhat and have been doing internal / external rotation level 1 shoulder kinds of rehab stuff with a band or cable pull at the gym. It has improved but has required me to give up any kind of press-motion resistance exercise (bench, military, dips).

I will likely end up having it scoped and trimmed up eventually.

EXACTLY minus the labrum, which thankfully mine is fully intact. My Dr thinks I have a significant tear on the long head of the biceps. Additionally I have Scapular Dyskinesis, on the same side. Basically it means my scapula pulls away from my ribs and floats out on it’s own when I lift my arm up. The Dr seems to think this is due to my musculature from years of swimming and that if I correct it I might see an improvement in the shoulder pain. I tend to agree that the dyskenisis adds to my problems, but I don’t think it was caused by my build as I am evenly muscled left and right and see 0 Dyskenisis on my right (good) side. Also do the external rotations with Thera-band and nearly every possible exercise to strengthen the muscles in and around my scapula and upper back- upright rows for example.

Do you get referral pain down your biceps and into your armpit and peck?

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I'm just a 10 cent rider on a $2,500.00 Bike

I chose the route of surgery as mine was a type 2. I had should surgery Jan 06 and did IMFL in Nov 06. I could never really swim or sleep with any comfort prior to surgery, 12 weeks after surgery I was swimming with a little bit of discomfort but after a few weeks it was no problem. Still the shoulder is not perfect but is not holding me back.

I saw 1:03 in tough conditions so i am with the surgery.

Yeah, I had a SLAP tear (type 3 I think). I had it repaired Jan. 06. Recovery was 10x worse than my knee repair. It was on the upper back portion of the shoulder capsule (picture your arm dislocating up and back the ball of your humerus tears the labrum off of the shoulder capsule).

It will not repair itself. With my tear there was zero chance that PT would fix the issue. My doc basically said if you can live with it, skip surgery. If it hinders what you like to do, i.e. swimming, tennis, baseball, the only way to address it is with surgery. I could not lay on my stomach and push myself up (like out of bed), so it was pretty bad.

They can diagnose with pretty good accuracy with modalities in the office. Depending upon their diagnosis, you would then have an MRI, and then maybe surgery.

It was 3 months with no running, swimming, biking, nothing. It is very difficult to heal, as there is almost no blood flow, and if you fell running, back to square 1. That said, 3 months out I started rehab stuff (stayed ahead of the curve) and was swimming (lightly) shortly there after. I would say that I was close to 100% about a year out, until I fell off of the rollers a few months back. It gave me a scare but I can swim, throw, anything except stretching to my limits without pain. They say for tennis/pitching its 18-24 months and swimming is ~12...

-c

Well Crap NO DARN Surgery for me.

Had an MRI, which is how I got the diagnosis- never got a class/grade from the DR. See him Monday to talk about the possibility of surgery after 6 Mo PT

The funny thing is I can't pull my pants up without pain- you know that searing shooting pain. I can’t even think about holding my 5 year old or 3 year sons in my left arm, the baby at 8 Months lasts about 1 min before I need to hold her on my right side. But I can swim without the searing pain, but I fatigue quickly and start to get pain down my biceps and into my peck- the dull aching type. In think this over compensation. The other thing I notice is my shoulder pops in and out of place a lot when I first start swimming.

The bottom line for me is I want to return to normal living be able to hold my kids, pick up a gallon of milk with my left hand. But I have had two surgeries (ankle) in the last two years and I don’t want another. I hope the PT works- my guess is it won’t get me where I want to be.

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I'm just a 10 cent rider on a $2,500.00 Bike

Ok so yours doesn't sound so bad 12 weeks is reasonable! I wonder if I can wait until next winter so I can race for the first time in almost 4 years this season.

Did you have problems riding? What about in aero bars?

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I'm just a 10 cent rider on a $2,500.00 Bike

The surgery was not that bad... I had it at 9:00am and only took pain pills for 1 day. Yes it is hard to take 12 weeks off, but I am happy that I did. My issue was I couldn't take a shirt off without pain but I still have some issues but overall the swim is great.

Pain for me has been mostly in the head of the biceps and some in the insertion at the pec. Not so much underneath in the armpit. I have adhesions in the tendon groove across the head of the humerus and sometimes feel it catch with overhead motion. I particularly hate that. I ignored it as long as I could but I almost dropped a 70 lb dumbbell on my head when the damn tendon snagged on me in the middle of an incline press set.

The injection seemed to help with the tendon snag, and getting away from heavy weights has also been beneficial I feel sure. I have not been in the pool a whole lot this winter, but when I have it hasn't bothered me too much. Honestly, I mainly miss the weights. If I want to go back to it I am pretty sure I'll have to get scoped.

Your situation re: surgery probably depends on how bad your tear is. If it's in the muscle and it's only partial it will likely heal on its own with reasonable PT. If it's in the glenoid you will probably have to have it repaired. I'd think you might try 12 wk of active rehab and if that doesn't work go get scoped. Have you had an MRI with contrast?

Have you had an MRI with contrast?

Yes and it sounds like our tears are similar

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I'm just a 10 cent rider on a $2,500.00 Bike

Yeah, sorry all those other replies came up while I had the editing window open so I see I asked you a bunch of redundant questions.

Good luck with your surgeon visit next week. Let us know how it goes. If your guy knows what he's doing, and since you don't appear to have a high grade in the cartilage, you should have a pretty easy repair & recovery.

Don't want to name name him but he does shoulder work for several pro sports teams in Chicago- top grade guy. Thats is one thing I have going for me.

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I'm just a 10 cent rider on a $2,500.00 Bike

That's what you want. Someone who knows athletes and does a lot of cases. You should do fine.